Louise Baldock was a Labour Councillor in the city of Liverpool for two terms, 2006 - 2014. This was her award-winning blog, written mainly as a councillor about issues affecting Kensington and Fairfield ward, sometimes as a politician, and sometimes simply personal commentary. Although she thought she might rekindle the blog after May 2015, she has now changed her mind and leaves this as an archive and record.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

1st Jan 2008 will see broadcasting history made when all 24 hours on Channel 167, on the Sky Platform, will be dedicated to the start of European Capital of Culture in Liverpool.

Information TV will host what is believed to be the first time in the world that anyone has booked all 24 hours on any channel to promote a single project. Starting at midnight on 31st December to midnight on 1st January anyone tuning in will see a promotional video for the year of culture.

This unique deal is part of a cultural relationship with Information TV that will also host a Capital of Culture Micro Channel across its service comprising of three fixed and three floating hours every day across the year – starting on January 12th – the day after the official opening to the year of culture.

Liverpool ‘08 officially begins at 20.08pm on Friday, Jan 11 with the People’s Opening at St George’s Plateau. This dazzling, free 40 minute show features Ringo Starr, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and many others.

And at 20.08pm on Saturday, January 12, Liverpool – the Musical will be performed at the new Echo Arena Liverpool. Ringo and the RLPO perform again along with a host of Liverpool stars for what will be the opening show for the Kings Dock venue.

For more information on the European Capital of Culture 2008 please visit liverpool08.com.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

The official guide to Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture 2008 is now on sale.

The 202-page publication, which charts the city’s year-long programme, is available for £5 at Liverpool's tourist information centres as well as Marks and Spencer’s outlets across the North West of England. It will also be stocked at St George's Heritage Centre and the official Liverpool FC store in Liverpool city centre. More than 350 events including many World, European and UK premieres are highlighted in the guide, complete with listings information, maps and a detailed five-page calendar.

The guide takes a thematic and chronological approach to ‘08 with sections on Music, Literature, Art, Streets, Stage, Participation, Conversation, Sport and Exploring. There is also a section on the cultural offer of Merseyside and North West in 2008. Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council and Deputy Chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, said: ‘’Liverpool’s year as the UK’s European Capital of Culture is of a scale that has never been attempted before. To see it all in one publication makes for a terrific read and should fill everyone involved with pride.’’

Bryan Gray, Chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, said: ‘’The guide to Liverpool ’08is easy to read and provides everything you would wish to know about what, when and where the city has in store. The creativity of the city shines out of every page and underlines the partnerships and sheer hard work among thousands of people to deliver this amazing programme.’’

Phil Redmond, Creative Director and Deputy Chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, said: ‘’This guide is the perfect way for people to navigate 2008 and is a great memento of what will be a momentous year. It also illustrates the ambition of Liverpool’s cultural offer – including what the city already does on annual basis. As its says at the start, Liverpool ‘08 will be a year like no other.‘’ The official guide to the European Capital of Culture 2008, which was designed by Liverpool company Finch, is part of a family of publications. The Liverpool Culture Company is also producing free, four seasonal guides. The first is also out this week.

27: Percentage turnout in Liverpool city council elections, the lowest figure in Britain.

12: Percentage turnout in Liverpool's Central ward in local elections.

2: Party leaders now publicly in favour of having Elected Mayors (David Cameron and Nick Clegg)

Together, let's make 2008 the year we re-invent the way Liverpool is led and run.

Thank you for your support, have a Happy Christmas and a truly democratic New Year!"

For the avoidance of doubt, I dont support the concept of an elected mayor. And even if I did (which I dont), we would still have to have elected councillors as well. A point that Liam overlooks in my view in some of the above entries.

His argument suggests that local governance is ill served by the current structures, but what he has failed to understand is that local governance is in fact ill served by the Liberal Democrats

99% of the above criticisms can be laid at the door of the party in charge, not the fact that we dont have a mayor.

But that they are valid criticisms of our council I have no doubt and he is to be congratulated on compiling this helpful list.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Telling the Easter story on the streets of Manchester City Centre with popular and famous locally produced music and popular and famous local actors?

Well tonight it was the Liverpool Nativity

Telling the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The story was acted out on the streets of Liverpool.

A modern take on the oldest story in the world.

Mary was working in a cafe on the Wirral, her boyfriend Joseph was a refugee.

The Angel Gabriel (the city CCTV operator) told Mary that she was to have a baby, and although Joseph took a bit of persuading, he did in the end support Mary who he loved very much.

Herodia, an important Government Minister trying to come to the attention of the President for her hard-line stance, heard from the Magi that a baby would be born to the girlfriend of an Asylum Seeker, who would be the King of Kings. So she decided to round up all Asylum Seekers by asking them to come to the passport office in Liverpool and review their visas. She was advising her staff from inside St George's Hall.

Mary and Joseph travelled to Liverpool on the Mersey Ferry and wondered the streets looking for somewhere to stay, subject to terrible prejudice from some people who had been inflamed by Herodia's castigation of Asylum Seekers. Eventually they made their way to a pub on St Johns Lane - Doctor Duncans. The innkeeper let them stay in his lean-to and the baby Jesus was born amongst the beer barrels in the cold and placed in a shopping trolley.

(Interestingly Doctor Duncan was a relentless campaigner against poor living conditions in the Liverpool of the Victorian era, and the first Chief Medical Officer of Health to be appointed in the UK. If you had to be born in a pub, then one named after him must be your best bet.)

Liverpool's shepherds were homeless people sleeping outside St George's Hall, outcasts from society, just like the original shepherds were.

The Angels came to them via their radio and showed them where the baby lay.

The Shepherds and the Angels and the Kings made their way to the lean-to (which had magically been moved to the main stage by this point). They came and worshipped the infant and there was much joy.

My favourite songs came at this part - John Lennon's Beatiful Boy and the Beatles' Lady Madonna.

Then the crowds parted and Liverpool people took Mary, Joseph and the baby into their midst and closed the gap behind them so that they could not ever be found by Herodia.

- The city and its buildings looked wonderful. St George's Hall, the Library, the museum, the whole of William Brown Street looked marvellous. The skyline from the ferry looked great too.

- great Liverpool music, great acting, great singing

We enjoyed a wonderful spectacle (staggeringly cold but utterly wonderful).

It was live on BBC 3 and then repeated at 11pm (which I am just watching now to make sure I have not missed anything).

It will be on again on BBC1 just before Christmas, either the 23rd or 24th, so if you missed it, you get the chance to watch it and can join the rest of the world in admiring our great city playing centre stage with such an important story.

Wendy and I popped into GEARS Children's Christmas Party on Saturday at the Police Club in Fairfield.

The music was absolutely deafening (or else I am just getting old) but the children had a fantastic time. They were running round, playing with their balloons, playing dancing games and jumping games and musical chairs. They had a party tea, full of e numbers and sugar and food colouring, so they could run round even more wildly, just how a proper kids party ought to be in fact!

And a selection box

And all for a pound

Well done to Ann and Shaun for organising it and I think I am right in saying well done to Kenny Regen for helping to pay for it

Merry Christmas GEARS

(Incidentally, we were visited by a TV researcher from FTP putting a taster together for a possible programme contrasting Kensington London with Kensington Liverpool and asking people if they might be persuaded to swap with each other. I know it has been done to death a thousand times before over the last 50 years but if they are determined to do this then it is incumbent on us to ensure that we put our best face forward, show them the good stuff so they dont just focus on the blight. And definitely not stand for any stereotyping.

FTP has been set up by Charles Furneaux who was a Commissioning Editor at Channel 4, where he was responsible for Documentaries and Specialist Factual programming. He commissioned and exec produced Touching the Void which received a cinema release and went on to become the highest ever grossing British documentary.

They filmed various people over the weekend, for the taster. So if it goes down well we can expect them back at some point to organise for the full programme.

I just hope they dont upset as many people as the Secret Millionaire did! But if we work with them constructively hopefully that wont happen.)

Wendy and I popped into the Riverside and Princess Park Labour Councillors' Christmas Party on Friday night at St James community centre.

More lovely food on offer, Somalian I think this time.

It gave us real food for thought, if you forgive the pun. I think we would like to emulate this great idea and put on a party next year in Kensington and Fairfield for members, friends and residents, partners and agencies, where we can thank everyone for all their hard work through the year.

I popped into the Asylum Link Christmas Party at the Casa on Hope Street on Friday. It was lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves, lots of traditional dancing from the men, waving a handkerchief and dancing round the room with their arms round each other. Fantastically loud music, great food, lots of warmth and a good family feeling. Thanks for the invite and keep up the good work.

I was invited this week to a event to celebrate the lifting of the cones on Edge Lane as the road works and improvements from the M62/Rocket up to Botanic Road are (more or less) finalised.

It was held in the wonderful Littlewoods building on Edge Lane where the various contractors all had corporate display boards.

There was a video running on the big screen, showing a car driving up and down Edge Lane, with the camera on the dashboard, which must have been filmed last year sometime. Having driven down the new road to get to the event, it was interesting to mark the contrasts.

The cones will be kept off the road now until January to help with the Christmas flow of traffic.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

E-bulletin from Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool - reproduced for your interest. Readers may recall I went to visit earlier this year and was extremely impressed. I am only sorry that my residents cannot take advantage of it as it is outside of my area.

Welcome to the Community Justice Centre, North Liverpool e-bulletin, keeping you up-to-date with our latest news and progress.

REDUCING CRIME. BUILDING CONFIDENCE

The Community Justice Centre has produced a report outlining its key activities during 2005 and 2006. ‘A Year in the Life’ of the Community Justice Centre, will be available on the website from January 2008.

CELEBRATING SUCCESS

The Community Justice Centre has been awarded two major accolades in the National Justice Awards 2007, as part of Inside Justice Week.

Avril Ainsbury, a volunteer at the centre was crowned Volunteer of the Year in the prestigious awards. She has worked with communities in Liverpool since 1970 and works as a volunteer within the criminal justice system. She has been a mentor for adult offenders and a Victim and Witness Support volunteer at the centre since 2006, supporting witnesses at trial, from their first contact with the court through to after court care.

The centre’s multi-agency community problem solving team was also Highly Commended for its outstanding contribution to tackling youth crime.

In addition, a local community organisation, the Breckfield and North Everton Neighbourhood Council (BNENC) which provides advice, support and training to residents in the area, won an award for its outstanding contribution to engaging local communities.

Inside Justice Week is an annual campaign aimed at engaging the public in the work of the Criminal Justice System. http://insidejustice.cjsonline.gov.uk/

MAKING AMENDS TO THE COMMUNITY

Grot spot clean up

11 van loads of debris and rubbish has been cleared from grot spots across North Liverpool by a team of young offenders carrying out unpaid work orders from the Community Justice Centre.

As part of the multi-agency Respect Action Week, which was held in Everton during the first week of October, young offenders cleared grot spots, removed fly tipped rubbish and picked litter, filling skips provided by Liverpool City Council. Work was carried out in streets across the area and feedback from local people has been very positive.

Meanwhile a team of 46 adult offenders worked at the Soho Street all-weather pitch in Everton, removing graffiti from the goals and repainting them, clearing broken glass and bringing the pitch back into use. As a result of the success of the project, the team has started work on a project to repair and re-paint the railings and decking at the West Everton Community Centre.

The Respect Action Week brought together more than 65 representatives from agencies across the area and also included targeted activity by the police to tackle drug dealing and prostitution.

Boat Restoration

Up to 50 young offenders carrying out unpaid work orders are set to begin the refurbishment of two 40ft Dragon boats donated to the Community Justice Centre by Liverpool Marina.

Dragon boat racing is an ancient Chinese tradition involving teams of up to twenty paddlers in each boat with a drummer at the front beating time and a helmsman at the tail steering a straight course. The Dragon boats were formerly used for competitive racing but are currently in a state of disrepair. They will be renovated by the team of young offenders, supervised by the Youth Offending Service.

Restoration will include replacing and repainting the timber. Once the renovation is completed, the boats will be returned to the Albert Dock and teams supervised by the Youth Offending Service, will use the boats for fundraising and team building events in 2008.

Garden Make-Over

Twelve young people, sentenced to unpaid work by the Community Justice Centre have transformed the garden of an 82-year-old woman from Walton.

The young men and women re-turfed and landscaped the woman’s garden and demolished a 30-ft shed, managed by the Youth Offending Service.

The woman, who is visually impaired, had been unable to maintain her garden and was delighted with the work carried out, writing a letter of thanks to the centre.

ENGAGING WITH LOCAL PEOPLE

Putting on Panto

Young people from the centre’s ‘Rock School’ have staged a special performance of Cinderella for local senior citizens as part of Hope University’s Cornerstone Arts Festival 2007 and the centre’s seasonal festivities.

‘Check out Cindy’ was performed for a specially invited audience of senior citizens’ from North Liverpool and falls within the police team’s work to support out of hours diversionary activities on a voluntary basis.

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP

New Advice Surgery

The Community Justice Centre is working with a number of groups across North Liverpool to tackle issues with anti social behaviour and has established a weekly surgery at the Liverpool Six Community Association in Queens Road, Everton, for residents to report issues of concern.

The team has also set up a weekly lunch club at the Liverpool Six centre where young offenders prepare and serve meals to a local senior citizens’ group. This follows positive feedback from an event held as part of the Respect Action Week where young offenders cooked and served lunch to the local senior citizens’ bingo club.

Tackling Anti Social Behaviour

The centre is setting up a new community Problem Solving Group in response to ongoing issues in the Stanley Road area of Kirkdale.

This follows ongoing progress with the centre’s Queens Road (Everton) Problem Solving Group, which met at the beginning of October. Success has included the identification of the main perpetrators of anti social behaviour in that area and the discussion of potential referrals to the Youth Offending Service.

We are very keen to receive feedback and any comments regarding the contents of this e-bulletin.

I was tonight sent an email from SearchLight detailing the current state of disarray in the BNP.

The full story on the Crisis as described to me in the email is available here on http://www.stopthebnp.org.uk/

There are times to keep your head down for fear of reprisals and times when you just have to make your stand clear.

The BNP has fallen apart

Those facists who purport to be democrats have split from those BNP who are straightforward facists

The vile and odious Nick Griffin has been trashed by most of the BNP because he has failed to censore and indeed appears to have supported some of the most disgusting and vile of his high profile and high ranking members above the more mundane repulsive racists of his party.

I know, I know, it is a hard one to call

And believe me, I am not calling it

I think they are all seriously damaging and appalling.

I wont be taking sides when one facist criticises another, but I will be jubilant to learn that the BNP is falling apart at the seams.

And when you represent a seat like mine with new immigration and lots of uncertainty about the pace of change then you have to be very sensitive and thoughtful to how this is managed. And believe me, it is not managed through fascism.

I sincerely hope it is years if not decades before the bastards can regroup.

Kensington Vision's blog says I am the Queen of the Podcasts because 13 of you have already downloaded mine and Wendy's radio show from this blog as posted earlier this week.

Great news, but 13 is not a lucky number for some, so how about another dozen of you download our show and let's put Kensington and Fairfield's people's choice at the top of the list for keeps.

We had a great show, we worked really hard to get it ready but none of it would have been worth a light without our wonderful guests, Saul, Maria, Marie, Jonathan and Dave.

All plaudits really go to them, I am sure the police have boosted our podcast download rates, wanting to hear how the boss fared (he was great) and the kids at Central Youth club would have wanted to hear Marie. Jonathan is very popular in the environs of Newsham Park, perhaps he could put a link to his interview in their next newsletter.

The only guests who might struggle in the first instance to find directly interested folk ready to download would probably be Saul and Maria who were promoting the need to restore the final resting place of some of Liverpool's finest. No podcast connection in Deane Road cemetery, although perhaps some descendants would like to hear the interview? Saul and Maria were great advocates of our project, for sure and I would hope the Jewish community in Liverpool would love to hear more about their hard work (pictured).

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Yes, as Terry says, he is not dead and we should keep cheerful, but frankly I am finding that a little difficult

The BBC tonight is reporting that author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer's disease (have a look at the link).

Can I just say Terry, if you are googling your own name and come across this entry, I admire your work tremendously. I love everything you write. Last week I reread the God of Small Things, last month I was delighted to read the book about the Mint (okay I dont remember titles all that well) which was a fantastic follow-up to a really top book about the Post Office.

So many books have brought me pleasure. The witches, DEATH, the watch... and the Johnny books are unsurpassed, have no doubt.

Never has one author been so successful, on so many occasions and so thoroughly and for so long and with so many titles.

At least two of my close friends have every single book, one has them all in hardback because she cannot bear to wait for the paperback.

Please know that your readers recognise in you something truly outstanding and we will be there for you, buying your stuff and willing you on and for those of us who do such things, praying for you, for as long as you need us.

Those of you who have been watching the developments with regard to the shambolic cancellation of the Mathew Street Festival cannot have missed the reference to Warren Bradley having allegedly offered Peroni to Lee Forde when they met to discuss whatever it was, in Warren's house last month.

Give him his due, he found it quite funny to see Peroni on offer tonight at the Lord Mayor's Christmas drinks reception in the Town Hall after the full council meeting and took great delight in offering a bottle to various Labour members.

Consequently we will not be offering a taper to residents keen to take up the enveloping scheme in the Holt Road neighbourhood.

Incidentally I have had a call from Cathy at Kensington Regeneration to remind me that they paid for the works (the wonderful works) at Cheviot, Middleton and Lindale in L7 and there is no taper. Good for them, well done Kensington Regeneration, well done for trail blazing. Well done for supporting true regeneration. Well done too for the Labour Government for funding the New Deal which Kensington Regeneration has used to pay for the works.

But a big raspberry to the LibDem city council and their elected representatives.

All the Labour councillors voted with me to support a taper so that homeowners benefitting from home improvements wouldnt be penalised for daring to leave within ten years.

But the LibDems voted against it.

Why? Who knows, I expect they cobbled together some kind of an excuse (although they have not taken the time or the trouble to tell me what it was, they just stuck their hands up and voted against it with no discussion). The truth is that they dont like to see Labour councillors having successes in case it results in a few more votes for us and fewer votes for them.

So, Labour, through government funding through Kensington Regeneration, pays outright for home improvements in one area, but the LibDems in charge of a different scheme, put the people of Holt Road in an arm-lock and insist on them paying for the lot unless they can commit to their home for a full ten years

Happy Christmas to you miserable Scrooges, I am quite sure the voters will understand which party it is that puts residents first in Kensington and Fairfield.

The second motion, on selective licensing was also rejected out of hand and also with no explanation.

Wendy and I were at a meeting today where we discussed with residents and agencies the whole idea of selective licensing for private landlords, as I explained in the earlier post. They were wildly supportive and very excited.

But as I pointed out at the time, Frank Doran, last remaining LibDem in the ward, would have to ensure that his party voted with me (as well as all my Labour colleagues) if we were to make this happen.

Needless to say, despite nodding in all the right places, he did not bring his colleagues to the table. And for the record, the three LibDems in Picton ward who also cover the New Deal area didnt vote for this.

As far as I am concerned, once I get this message out there to our residents they will see the clear difference between a Labour Council and a LibDem one. Political games on their part while I do my best to bring about the changes they all want.

The only positive note was that I got an amendment/composite through council on the blood service which I wrote hurriedly this afternoon in the car between one meeting and another (thanks to Wendy for scribing) after a long chat with the NBS Union Rep from Unite, and will reproduce in a week or two when I get an electronic copy for you.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Here are my motions to council this month, let's hope the LibDems support them, as well as the Labour councillors who have already signed up to them.

The first motion concerns the house improvement work (called "enveloping") being done to the front of houses (mainly) in terms of small walls, gates, brick cleaning, new steps, porches, side gates etc. This has already been done in the Cheviot, Lindale, Middleton area and has started in the Holt Road triangle, a few streets done, and many more to do. The rationale behind my motion is that some people are put off from having the work done because they have not got the cash to pay for it themselves and they dont want to commit to living in the same house for 10 years. It is longer than I have ever lived anywhere myself too so I can sympathise with that.

Another reason is that by forcing people to hang on to their houses for ten years, new people cannot buy these houses from them because they wont sell. Finally it worries me that some people, particularly noticeable in the Holt Road area (Cotswold etc) have not taken up what ought to be a copper-bottomed improvement scheme.

To get the full visual benefit for the neighbourhood we need to see every property signing up for improvements. So we clearly need a taper system in place before we roll this out to more streets.

GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR "ENVELOPING" SCHEMES WITHIN HMRI AREAS BY COUNCILLOR LOUISE BALDOCK

This Council notes that a grant scheme is available to assist home-owners with enveloping schemes for their properties in HMRI areas.

The Council notes that the grant is repayable if the home-owner sells their house within ten years.

However, this Council is concerned that the full grant is repayable right up until the ten year deadline, so a resident wanting to move house after 9 years would have to repay as much as someone leaving after 1 year.

This Council proposes that the repaying of grant monies should be on a sliding scale of a 10% reducing repayment over the same ten year period. So that if a home-owner leaves after 7 years they will only have to repay 30% of the grant.

This Council welcomes the enveloping scheme which has been designed to benefit the whole of a sustainable neighbourhood, including future residents.

It believes that the repayment of the grant should not act as a block on the desire of local people to move into the new sustainable areas, or a block on residents wishing to move out.

This Council calls on the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and Housing to review the grant scheme and consider introducing a taper.

(If Standing Orders are not suspended the motion will be referred to the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and Housing for consideration and response)

The second motion is one I have submitted with Nick Small, councillor for Central Ward who has part of the Kensington New Deal area in his ward. This refers to selective licensing for private landlords.

Let me explain. In 2004 the Government passed the Housing Act. Amongst other things it allowed that in selective areas chosen because they are suffering from a crisis in housing and where there is strong evidence of anti-social behaviour, it is possible to oblige private landlords to sign up to a set of rules that requires them to ensure that their tenants are well-behaved, do not create disturbances for their neighbours, put their rubbish out on the right day and any other things that show that they are generally good tenants. This would put private landlords in the same bracket as Registered Social Landlords in the selected area.

I made my maiden speech on this subject, about 18 months ago and asked then that Kensington and Fairfield be used as a pilot project.

Subsequently I also distributed a petition to residents suggesting that our area was chosen as a pilot for the scheme, this was overwhelmingly and massively supported.

Now we need to put the pressure on to make this happen, we cannot wait any longer for the council to act in its own good time. Nick and I are in total agreement about this and to add weight to our call we have chosen a part of the geography that is served by three wards, by 5 Labour and 4 LibDem Councillors so we ought to get agreement on all sides of the chamber. That is the plan anyway.

This is our motion

PILOT SCHEME FOR SELECTIVE LICENSING BY COUNCILLOR NICK SMALL AND LOUISE BALDOCK

This Council reconfirms its support for selective licensing for private landlords, as passed in motion 118 in July 2006:

“Council notes and welcomes the introduction of licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in the Housing Act 2004, which requires all HMOs of three or more stories occupied by five or more people to be licensed by local housing authorities as well as allowing local housing authorities to introduce selective licensing primarily focused on areas of low housing demand (or areas likely to fall into that category) and other areas suffering from anti-social behaviour.

Council further notes the successful voluntary licensing scheme for student landlords operated by Liverpool Student Homes (a joint venture run by the City’s three universities and their respective student unions), which requires providers of student housing to sign up to a Code of Practice, which goes further than the statutory requirements, as a condition of achieving approved status with Liverpool Student Homes (LSH).

Council requests that the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and Housing, while meeting her statutory obligations, works with Liverpool Student Homes to focus enforcement of licensing on those landlords not currently registered with Liverpool Student Homes to avoid duplication.

Council further requests the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and Housing to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the City to determine whether selective licensing would be appropriate in certain parts of the City to address issues of low housing demand and/or anti-social behaviour.”

Council further notes previous motions agreed by this Council calling for mandatory landlord licensing along with the progress already being made by the Council on this issue including:-

My Boro team, struggling in the relegation zone, having to play the mighty chart-topping Arsenal, and we haven't won a game in three months.

And would you believe it, we won 2-1.

Arsenal's first defeat of the season.

As Arsene Wenger said “They were sharper, we were second best.”

I'm told our fans were singing "Top of the league, you're having a laugh". We can be really cruel sometimes, I must give Stephen Twigg a call and gloat ;-)

I'd be stunned except we have made quite a habit out of defeating the top-flight clubs. Now we just have to learn how to beat the rest of them. A very welcome 3 points that see us lifted out of the relegation zone.

Wendy and I visited the Christmas Presence Christmas market this afternoon at the Bridewell Studios on Prescot Road, Kensington.

I bought some Christmas cards, Christmas decorations and knocked another stocking-filler off the list.

The studio is more or less opposite the Royal Hospital and I heard about it when they had a radio show on Kensington Vision's KVFM community radio station.

There was one surreal moment when we passed a printed notice in the hall that said in bold "Have you seen our aluminium step ladders?". We both looked around in anticipation of a modern sculpture, only to read in the small print that someone had nicked them from the toilets and were being urged to return them forthwith!

Liam and I had a really useful meeting with Andzej (Andrew) from a Polish organisation in Liverpool who have designed a website, www.livel.eu and a magazine to help new Polish arrivals settle in Liverpool.

The first edition of the magazine, Czas na przerwę was launched last week.

He has lots of great ideas and we came away with a huge list of contacts we need to identify for him, so that the organisation can begin to work with public agencies and organisations in the city, for mutual support, publicity, advertising, spreading the message etc.

They are also keen to set up a Polish Club in Liverpool. I have heard rumours of clubs already in existence, somewhere off Ullet Road for instance. Do you know if there is one already? Some people tell me there are none, others that there are.

Andzej says they would ideally like one in Kensington, I have promised to make a few enquiries on their behalf. Liam and I were thinking about empty pubs they could perhaps take over the management of for instance, there are a few in Kensington and Fairfield. Or perhaps the managers of existing pubs might like to turn themselves into an "official" Polish pub? It could do wonders for falling trade.

Liam and I went to St John the Divine Church on Holly Road on Thursday night to join them in a farewell celebration.

The church is in a parlous state physically, the steeple will have to be demolished as it is now extremely dangerous (part of the church is already roped off to prevent anyone having any rubble falling on them, both inside and out). The roof of the adjoining community centre has already exceeded its lifespan by some 7 years.

It is a terrible shame, nobody wants to have to move out of their church and centre, but if something truly cannot be saved, then needs must.

So the challenge now is for the Vicar and congregation to find a new place to worship and new venues to host their community activity. Most of this has now been resolved but they are still looking for somewhere with big ovens where they can cook the food for the luncheon club they run in conjunction with Age Concern.

I am making some enquiries on their behalf, I have thought of the Fairfield Centre on Sheil Road, Venture Housing on Boaler Street, the Sure Start on Quorn Street so far. I have written some emails to them today. Can you think of anywhere else which might have big enough ovens and a nice area for dining?

The party was absolutely packed with supporters, extremely well-attended, despite the atrocious weather, loads of lovely children and their parents, but also the older users of the community centre, congregation members and local residents. The PCSOs were there too and also the Community team from Kensington Regeneration.

Just while chatting to a few people I picked up four bits of casework.

What a shame to lose this resource, good luck to them all in finding new homes

Last week Wendy, Liam and I were pleased to attend the Liverpool West Derby Labour Party fundraising dinner at Retsina on Derby Road, Old Swan.

It was very well attended. Stephen Twigg had asked Michael Cashman MEP as after-dinner speaker. He was very funny, and as a former actor, he acted the part of various European politicians, and some UK ones, as he told his tales. So we felt we had not one speaker but many.

Arlene McCarthy MEP also came, which was very supportive of her.

We also had regional TU friends with us.

The food was lovely too, course after course of Greek dishes, I would definitely recommend it.

Stephen is doing a wonderful job of re-energising the local constituency party and they are providing lots and lots of activists for campaigning activity every week now. I can see some great electoral results coming in the West Derby area!

In essence, funding for providing local services will now move from a city wide approach, to a localised system of funding based on local priorities. The city agrees on a Local Area Agreement which is then reflected through 5 neighbourhood agreements.

The City and North joint neighbourhood committee contains 14 Labour and 4 Liberal Democrat Councillors. Steve Munby is the Chair and I am the Deputy Chair. The neighbourhood includes the city centre, the Dingle, the waterfront, Kirkdale, Everton, Kensington, Fairfield and Picton

Steve is chairing the Children and Young People Partnership Working Group (PWG), Jane Corbett is chairing the Health and Older People PWG, our Neighbourhood Manager, Karen Lewis is chairing the Strong and Safe Communities PWG.

I am chairing the new Physical Regeneration PWG.

I was chairing Economic Development and Enterprise, with Physical Regeneration but we agreed at our last joint wards that this was far too big of an agenda for any group of people so we have split it in half. Nick Small is going to chair ED&E. This makes sense as he is also our Shadow Exex Member for the same brief, city wide.

Last week we spent the whole day in the wonderful Blackburne House on Hope Street, deliberating over local priorities for these two "blocks" of the Neighbourhood agreement. We were joined by all the relevant council staff, partners and agencies as well as other local councillors. We have come up with some very strong aims and priorities which will dictate our spending over the next three years.

Once the NA is published I will link to it on here.

Our final task will be to identify which Key Performance Indicators we wish to prioritise in order that the relevant funding can make its way to us.

It is very powerful stuff, to engage on such important future spending with the ability to address local need and local issues. I am enthusiastic about this process, even if it has taken us about six months to get to this point.

I have been contacted by Gerry Murphy, Chair of Liverpolitalia who has been alerted to my earlier entry. I want to help the group by publicising their activities a bit more widely.

Gerry tells me as follows:

Liverpolitalia was formed last year as the 'Children of Italy'. Having discovered the existence of other organisations in the USA with similar names we decided to call the organisation 'Liverpolitalia'

We have a membership which is growing all the time and have a committe of representatives of sometime ancient Liverpolitalian families in the city.

Our particular emphasis is on the representation and re-establishment of the presence of Liverpolitalians in the make-up of the city. Ours is not, therefore an organisation which seeks to bask in the 'Glory that was Rome' but to celebrate the achievements of those who for whatever reason found themselves having to emigrate.

There is, however a particular emphasis on the re-discovery of Italian language and culture in the form of taught courses and of course Liverpolitalia itself.

I attach here the prospectus of the organisation and hope you will nmaintain contact with us in the future. If you received an inviation and were able to come to the meeting on the 28th then please forgive me repeating what you probably already know!

LIVERPOLITALIA

A Prospectus

The Idea

The idea of Liverpolitalia is the formation and formal constitution of an organisation which seeks to bring together the relatives and associates of all Italian immigrants who came to the city of Liverpool from the 19th century onwards.

Liverpolitalia grew out of the original idea for a group called “I Figli d’Italia” (Children of Italy) to provide a focus and forum for the sharing of collective and individual memories and perspectives on the nature of Liverpool Italian identity. The first meeting of the embryonic “Liverpolitalia” was on 21st June 2007.

Composition and Constitution

The organisation is open in the first instance to all who possess Italian relatives of any sort, who are interested in their Italian heritage and in developing contacts with other of similar generation in the U.K., the U.S.A. and Ireland as well as Italy itself.

Constitution

Within the first six months the organisation has set up a working party and steering committee to draw up a formal constitution paving the way for the election of a committee and officers of the organisation.

Activities

The activities of the organisation will be chiefly concerned in the first phase with the drawing together of the many citizens of Liverpool and its hinterland that are of Italian origin.

The organisation will host Italian food and culture evenings and seek to liaise with other like-minded organisations in the area. Italian language courses will be organised for those who seek to learn the language of their ancestors.

In these the early days the organisation will lay the foundations for a representative and proactive community and charitable organisation which will provide a “focolare” for the Italian community, its descendants and all who empathise with and hold Italian culture in a position of esteem.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Great news from Yellow House - I just had this message from Gosia Mc Kane

Well done!

"Yellow House were named as Winners of the Radio City Community Project of the Year Award at the Ceremony on Thursday 29th November 2007 at The Royal Court Theatre - we believe it was well deserved for our commitment to young people over 25 years in Liverpool - we do not know who nominated Yellow House but thank you whoever it was - we will continue our innovative and exciting work every day with young people as usual - Yellow House is proud of its work, the young people, of Liverpool, its people and history

Monday, December 03, 2007

What do you make of this article by Andrew Russell in Progress this month? He is senior lecturer in politics at the University of Manchester and examines here the Liberal Democrat's electoral and political strategy and its relationship with the other parties.

Personally I would rather go into coalition with the People's Front of Judea, or even at a pinch, the Judean People's Front

Cath and I went to the Civic service in the Bethel Presbyterian Church of Wales, Heathfield Road, Liverpool (at the end of my street essentially).

We sat with the mayors from all over Merseyside, with the Recorder and the Chief of Police and all sorts of other dignatories. There were about 8 LCC councillors present I think.

I love civic masses and civic services but this was particularly interesting.

Half of the hymns and half of the service were in Welsh, which was fascinating. Cath said she felt like John Redwood trying but failing to sing the Welsh National Anthem. We did try to sing along with the Welsh but at times fell back on la-la-ing and singing the words quietly in English where we knew them - like Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

The Minister was particularly welcoming and stressed the importance of the city coming together for our 800th birthday.

There were moving contributions from Welsh congregation members, including the wonderful singing of Muriel Cunningham, very much reminiscent of Charlotte Church and a lovely 800th birthday song from another member of the church whose name I missed.

We were made very welcome and I wouldn't mind worshipping with them occasionally on a Sunday morning.

Thank you for inviting me.

In the afternoon I went with Lisa and little Isaac to the Christingle Service at All Souls CoE church on Mather Avenue on the corner of Springwood Avenue.

If you have been to a Christingle service you will know it is really a service for children to help introduce them to Advent and to Christmas.

Wikipedia tells us that "a Christingle is a symbolic object used in advent services in churches of many Christian denominations. It has its origins in the Moravian Church , with the first recorded use, in Germany, in 1747.

This is the story of the first Christingle:

One Christmas time back in 1747 at a town in Germany, Pastor John sat at home in front of his fire. He was thinking how he could explain the love of Jesus, and what Christmas really meant to the children in the church. He decided to prepare a simple symbol to help make the message of Christmas fresh and lively for them. Pastor John gave each child a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon, with a prayer that said "Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children's hearts". This was the first ever Christingle service.

Many years later, in 1968, Christingle services were introduced to the Anglican Church in Britain by John Pensom of The Children's Society, and the custom spread quickly; each year there are more and more Christingle services in England and Wales, although today's Christingles are a little different.

The Christingle consists of:

an orange representing the world with a red ribbon around it representing the blood of Jesus fruits and sweets (usually dolly mixtures) are skewered on 4 cocktail sticks which are pushed into the orange representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons and a lighted candle is pushed into the centre of the orange representing Christ, the light of the world"

Our service followed this faithfully, although my Christingle only had three cocktail sticks instead of four - I was robbed!

Isaac volunteered to take part in the service and went up to the altar with the big boys and girls to play his part. We held our breath, Lisa and I, but if anything, this lovely little boy was better behaved than the bigger children who stood with him. The curate said later that his face and his poise gave her a really strong sense of the meaning of Christmas as she watched him solemnly taking part in the service.

A rousing rendition of "Is this the way to shine for Jesus" to the tune of Amarillo and a candle-lit Away in a Manger were particularly memorable.

My mate Cath Ingham and I went to the New Picket on Saturday night to an event to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

A cause dear to both of our hearts. Cath has two sons with CF, both in their 30s and doing well, thank you. I lost my friend Dominic McElroy to CF in 2001. Gordon Brown's younger son has CF too.

It can be a devasting disease claiming young lives but with careful management it does not have to be a death sentence as Cath's sons show.

The gig showcased 6 acts.

My favourites were TJ and Murphy - an accoustic folk duo with lovely lyrical songs - and the Alun Parry Band, enthusiastic folk to get the dancers on to the dance floor (My Grandad was a docker was particularly well received).

We were somewhat startled by the announcement of a 5am bar - needless to say we were home safe long before then, but pleased with the raffle where I won a £120 service from a Ford garage in Birkenhead.

It was my first trip to the New Picket but it wont be my last, a great venue, fantastic DJing between the bands and really friendly and supportive bar staff and bouncers.

We had our AGM at the Eldonians, a really positive example of co-operation in action. And as if I dont already have enough to do, I have agreed to be the new Secretary of the Liverpool Co-operative Party.

The Co-operative Party is a sister party to the Labour Party and it is perfectly possible, acceptable and even desirable to hold joint membership.

Louise Ellman is a Labour/Co-op MP and hopefully Stephen Twigg will be our city's second Labour/Co-op MP after the next general election in Liverpool West Derby.

Gordon Brown is the first Co-op member to become Prime Minister.

We want to reach out to co-operators right across the city, whether they are in retail, music, housing, art, farming, sport, whatever it may be.

If you are a co-operator and would like to join the Co-operative Party and engage with us in debates about how co-operative solutions can be found for local policy challenges then please do get in touch with me. You do not have to be a Labour Party member to be a Co-operative Party member.

Tories however need not apply, whatever David Cameron might pretend about them embracing co-operation and mutualism, we all know they are the party of the individual and co-operation doesn't work like that.

4pm on Friday saw the last transmission of KVFM from McDonalds in Kensington

A fortnight of excellent community radio, with 94 different organisations featured and countless presenters and guests.

Great music, great public information and great radio

This was not ordinary radio, this was 100% home-grown, organically packaged, community radio (or words to that effect, thanks Sheila Fazakerley)

I have not been able to keep away over the fortnight, I have been into McDonalds on most days and had the car radio permanently tuned to KVFM on 87.7FM. I listened on the way to work very morning, catching some great shows presented by our junior and senior school kids. Then I listened on my way to meetings after work catching partners and agencies in the area promoting their services. And I had the pleasure of listening to crazy Carl and Captain Rob on the way back home around 8pm.

My personal favourites, without doubt, were Lauren and Demi from Sacred Heart primary who were on the radio on Saturday afternoon and again as the last show on Thursday night before switch off. Those two girls were full of confidence and joie de vive, they were chatting, singing, engaging and fantastic. Move over Jonathan Ross, move over Terry Wogan, these girls are coming for you!

Wendy and I loved our show and for the knockers, Frank Doran was on the radio on Saturday afternoon, 24th November too.

We have to bring it back next year.

So much hard work went into this project, Steve Faragher from Kensington Vision and Carl Speares from Likely Alliance deserve all our praise, thank you so much for bringing community radio to our area and please come back soon.

My first ever Electoral Committee meeting on Thursday where I got the issue of those bloody boxes on the agenda. Readers of the blog in years gone by may remember this story.

Well I did my best, I told the primarily LibDem led committee about the ballot papers we found in the boxes this year. I reminded them about close elections - Croxteth ward was won by only 10 votes, Winchester by one vote in 1997.

They were unmoved.

I told them they were a failure in terms of knocking out supporters because the opposition steal the boxes or the cards from inside them.

We dont actually keep our cards, they all go in the bin (such few as are not stolen by the LibDems), we only have boxes in K&F because the LibDems have them and so we must.

I told them that they are a distraction from the real business of elections.

They were unmoved

I told them that nobody else in the country has boxes, but they refused to believe me, or the Returning Officer, or the Elections Officer.

They offered suggestions of places in the country where they believe the boxes are duplicated - I am positive they are wrong and that no-one outside of Merseyside does this. I know for sure that the national Labour Party is not happy with boxes.

And then my late-arriving Labour Councillor colleague failed to support me. He thought they helped remind people there was an election on. I am not sure how this is supposed to happen as you have to be at the door of the polling station before you see the box.

So we are stuck with them for another year at least and my blood pressure will have to suffer through another eve of poll

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Richie White and I quickly knocked out a round on Belle Vale (and were spotted by a friend from the Liverool African Assocation who I ran into later in McDonalds Kensington when I popped in to see how the radio station was going)

Then I took out a second bundle with Chris Helm where we delivered leaflets in Anfield, all around the stadium. It rained heavily but thankfully we were nearly finished by then.

I took some delight in watching some wet Mackems heading off to an as yet unknown huge defeat in the rain. I was hoping someone would ask me the way to Goodison so that I could point them in the wrong direction but they must have recognised me as a Boro fan because they had more sense than to stop me (no of course I dont mean it, I am an official 08 ambassador really!)

The houses around the stadium are in a very sorry state but I was pleased to see work has started in a concerted way to renovate and improve in at least one street.

I was pleased to attend the Chrysalis Dinner on Saturday night with Stephen Twigg, to celebrate and help raise funds for this vital domestic violence project.

Jackie the founder is doing brilliant work supporting victims of domestic violence with lots of agencies and partners to support her and the team.

The Devonshire House Hotel was beatifully decorated and the guests were all beautifully dressed - in black and white.

We were very well entertained by some very talented children, one tap dancing Riverdance style, one singing young Michael Jackson songs like an old pro and by Jackie's daughter showing Amy Winehouse how it is really done. (I am giving as few names as I can here, under the circumstances).

Then we enjoyed an Abba tribute band and a disco. The guests were all thrilled to have Jane Kennedy there, with partner and PA and also a dancing Stephen Twigg. But we had a great time too, lovely food my first Christmas dinner of the year, dancing, singing and no speeches or raffles, hurrah!

Thank you so much for inviting me. I took three bits of casework away but they were all relatively easy and I had them sorted within 24 hours. A great night all round. The more people that came up and thanked us for coming, the more we thanked them for letting us come, now you cannot say that too often about formal events like this!

I had an interview with Tim Slack on Thursday to talk about the work of Kensington Regeneration Community Team.

It is part of the work he is doing as a consultant to assess the work of the community team.

I was very pleased to tell him that as an elected representative covering three of the five neighbourhoods, it is my professional opinion that the work of the community team is probably the most important work that the New Deal organisation delivers.

There are the two great task groups I attend, Community Safety and Neighbourhood Services where residents are predominant and where agencies and partners join together to work on community issues.

There is the wonderful work done by the community cohesion staff - Martin and Clare and Mark - working to promote all the different communities in the New Deal area - African, Polish, Irish, Welsh, Italian, whatever it may be.

There is the supportive work that the staff and the wardens they help pay for, give to all the TRA groups to help their meetings and their actions to be successful. The Neighbourhood Assemblies too.

Maria, Karen and their colleagues are such great support to the local people. I knew I shouldnt have started naming names, inevitably it will end in people being missed out. Forgive me. I shall stop now and simply say if you are in Alan's community team I think you are doing a fantastic job and that is what I told Tim. Plus I gave him some of my views on how the service might be taken forward. Too many to go into here.

I have been very sorry to miss the last three meetings of the NSTG as they clashed with full council (where all 90 councillors come together in the Town Hall very six weeks), which I am obliged to attend.

However this meeting for once did not.

It did clash with the neighbourhood event designed to replace the State of the City debate, but with Wendy able to attend the latter, I was pleased to go to the former.

An hour and a half on matters arising, if that doesn't show what a lot of work there is still to do in cleaning up the New Deal Neighbourhood then I dont know what does.

I came away as usual with a list of jobs, but with a lift in my heart that so many people come together to sort these things out, lots of residents and lots of residents and partners. Heart warming really, I love the task groups, they are the best part of Kenny Regen.

Bernie Hunt asked me to thank all those councillors who were involved in the successful application for Kensington Fields - a victorian terraced estate - to become a conservation area.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

On Monday Wendy and I went to the Newsham Park Forum meeting in the Adult Learning Centre on Newsham Drive. On our way we had to stop to phone the fire service because we saw a car on fire, parked on Newsham Drive outside a house. Very scary, but they were there very quickly and everything seemed to be well in hand so we went on to our meeting.

Very depressing news, we learnt that the £50k bid for residents' consultation for plans for the Park in anticipation of a multi-million pound lottery bid had been knocked back. But Paul Scragg, head of the Parks Department did his best to reassure us that the new system for the Heritage Lottery Fund means that we still have a good chance of being considered, but sadly it puts the whole thing back yet another year.

It was a depressing meeting all round really. I learnt for the first time that the Friends of Newsham Park was born out of the Newsham Residents Association, they were encouraged to change from being a TRA to being a Friends Group by LCC to help the Lottery bid.

In many ways this shouldn't matter, but in fact it has mattered a lot. They struggle to have a focus on issues other than the park, that still affect them as local residents, street issues, because there is no forum for them any more to talk about crime, anti-social behaviour, environmental issues, parties and social events for local people, plans for community gardens, whatever it might be. They miss out on having meetings dedicated to their local area where the police, neighbourhood management services and other important partners can address their specific issues.

TRAs are a vital part of neighbourhood management in my personal view.

When we were at the Parks Forum, Friends members tried to bring up a few local street issues but were dissuaded from doing so because it was only a parks meeting.

I think something needs to change here, either we set up a new TRA for the Newsham area or we expand the Parks forum to look at a wider range of issues. Otherwise, this has been expediency on the part of the council to the detriment of local people.

I have not discussed this with anyone and Friends readers of the blog might disagree with me, so I would welcome views.

Last Tuesday was the Parks Scrutiny Panel - you may recall this is the meeting that I very proudly chaired last year and was deeply disappointed when the position was given this year to someone else.

Neither the new chair nor the Chair of the Select committee were at the scrutiny panel (I understand apologies were given after the event, but they were not presented at the meeting itself). Indeed like much of last year only two elected members showed up for this meeting. This depresses me too because I think our parks are vitally important to literally thousands of people across Liverpool and we should be giving them our very best attention.

This is not a party political point, it is a public representative point.

There should be more commitment to the scrutiny of the parks plan. Last year I knew that despite low attendances of councillors (from all parties, like I said this is not a party political point) as Chair I could maintain a grip on the agenda, on the detail, on the issues and ultimately I could write the report myself and be sure that the issues that the different Friends group raised would be incorporated. This year I dont have that certainty.

This is not a pink and fluffy local government matter, this is of fundamental importance to our health and fitness, to people with no gardens of their own - thousands of them across the city, to dog walkers, runners, amateur sports players, people who love trees and shrubs, to fishermen and cyclists and little kids.

Elected representatives have to decide whether they are ready to care about our parks and lakes as much as our residents do, I am still not convinced. Please prove me wrong.

Message from Dan Lees. Respond to him at danlees at yahoo dot com if you would like to attend.

Bangladesh charity night. Red Peppers, 290 Kensington.

16th December 2007.

On the above date Red Peppers will be hosting a charity evening to benefit areas of Bangladesh that have suffered from the recent flooding and typhoons.

As you are aware Bangladesh is a third world country that relies heavily on foreign aid. However much of this aid which has been earmarked for the country due to the recent disaster will not reach certain areas that also need it.

The MD of Red Peppers is from an area of Bangladesh which has been badly affected but will not receive any of the foreign aid at this time as such he feels that something needs to be done.

All money raised will be distributed directly to the villages that surround Ash’s home town of Sylhet which are in desperate need of repair. The most important thing at this time is the provision of tins for the roofs and materials to build stronger housing to counter the frequent flooding that affects the area.

The evening will comprise of a free buffet of fine Indian cuisine, music, entertainment and prize draws to help benefit the people of that region.Bearing in mind a small amount of Sterling is worth a lot in Bangladesh and would do a great amount of good.

Please attend this event if you are able and also help us by distributing to your network of contacts. There is parking facilities to the rear of the restaurant with space for 60 guests.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

You may draw your own conclusions from this reponse that Cllr Marshall has kindly shared with me. I look forward to reading them in due course!

10-11-07Your Ref AMc/CFO/SW

Dear Tony, In a modern authority I thought that you at least would have an e-mail address apart from a web site, this could have saved the Council Tax payers a small amount and reduced the environmental footprint of an envelope.I am sorry you do not like our Tender portrayed in the leaflet, the Officers who use it have not complained.In your presentation to Councillors you said, and I quote “deprived areas have more problems”. My area is one of the highest deprived areas in the city.You state in your report that we do not have the numbers on call outs, I agree, but we have dozen’s of fires un-reported. Will give instances and Officer reports later.Your Senior Officer had not been seen at any local meeting until Lee Manor had that many calls and £500,000 worth of damage, Caldway Manor on the verge of collapse, maisonettes due for demolition, on fire night after night.The Police calling incidents Fire Starting, not Arson, lessening the seriousness of the situation.In an area of low employment opportunities you propose to take away another how many was it 12 plus, and £300,000. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.While the Tender stands idle in Belle Vale, Tenders from Speke and beyond take their calls, I live local to the station so do not try to tell me different.Response time must be different as they have to come down country lanes to get here or come through Gateacre Village which is grid locked most times, unless you have a time machine we do not know about.Under-reporting is a major problem here, the Police will support this as they complain about our tight lipped community.In the last few weeks to my knowledge, as I have had to deal with it, 3 bus shelters loaded up with wheelie bins and burnt out.Caldway old rent office petrol bombed and fire officers stoned.I enclose a report from one of our Parks Officers.5-11-07 fire started on Ringway Rd, L25, 6-30pm, this went on till 3-45am.Dozens of fence panels taken from home owners and burnt, 40 foot of fence from the side of a building plus the back gate, 24 plus wheelie bins, trolley’s and 2 gas bottles. These yobs had their parents with them.You would not think we had a Police Station as well as a Fire Station on our estate.Residents tell me they watch the antics but do not report as it is none of their business.So it goes on.You tell me Firemen want to work longer hours, not what I am told, some do and am not surprised, I have knowledge of one of their wives and I would rather not go home, on the other hand I would not want him home either.Most Fire Officers are young and have small children and want quality time daily with such a dangerous profession.So tell me, there are no cuts to jobs, there is no finance taken from Belle Vale and I will put out another leaflet praising the Authority for listening to my community.

RegardsCllr Tom Marshall

Member of Lee Park Community AssociationMember of Management Committee Lee Valley Millennium CentreSecretary of the Woodlands CentreMember of the Management Committee of the Lyndene CentreTreasurer / Organiser Netherley Valley Youth Angling Project

My Stockton on Tees friends, Kath and Eileen came to stay over the weekend and I gave them a taste of the city in my Ambassadorial role. I showed them round Kensington and Fairfield, explaining the issues and the priorities. We had a trip to Crosby to see the Anthony Gormley statues, the tide was very far out and we could see right out to the furthest away man.

We had a bit of a trip round the city centre and looked at some of the civic buildings. We had a meal out at Amber on Rose Lane, 2 courses each and drinks for £25.It is a wine bar and bistro and has not been open long. Glamorous interior and very good service from the waiting staff, I was suprised we managed to get a table really, I shall go again.

This afternoon they came with Wendy and me to McDonalds on Kensington to have a taster session doing a test transmission for tomorrow's radio show.

Wendy, Liam and I enjoyed an evening out in Fairfield at the La Dolce Vita Italian evening as part of One World Week.

About 150 people enjoyed Italian food and wine, a talk from local historian (with Italian roots) Frank Carlyle about Little Italy and the history of the Italians in Liverpool and some fine music, plus a short speech from the Italian consul for Liverpool and surrounds, Nunzia Bertali.

A new group has been set up to bring the dispersed Italian families back together 70 odd years after their community was bulldozed. Liverpolitalia. If anyone has the website or contact details please post them up here in a comment, I cannot find the bit of paper I brought home with me just now.

We agreed to support the event through Liverpool City Council's Empowering Neighbourhoods Fund, and it was money very well spent.

The Chief was sent a copy of a LibDem leaflet that Cllr Marshall has distributed, claiming that "Belle Vale fire station is under threat of closure" and that "lives are at risk."

In the leaflet Marshall reproduces his planned motion to our next council meeting which says "We note with alarm the intention of the Labour led Fire Authority to cut the level of service provided by fire crews at stations in Belle Vale and Allerton."

There is the ubiquitous petition to "save Belle Vale fire service".

The Chief has written an open letter to Cllr Marshall which is published on their website here.

In it he says "I write with regard to the attached leaflet which has been circulated in your name and I assume therefore is sent from you. The leaflet is misleading, incorrect and disappointingly misrepresentative of the facts.

I believe it is important for Elected Members to portray important public information with accuracy, and sadly the leaflet, as regards Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service is as far removed from the facts of the matter. I would therefore like to correct some of the statements made in the leaflet and I would ask that you please pass on these corrections to your constituents." - I bet he doesn't!

He also says

The Fire & Rescue Authority• Does not intend to make any changes to the level of fire cover in Belle Vale;• Nor to vary its response times and targets which are among the very highestin the country.

And then, he gives some very good news for the area

"The Fire & Rescue Authority is very mindful that Belle Vale has problemsassociated with deprivation and the loss of community facilities. You may not beaware that as part of our renewal of our premises and our remodeling of the firestations we are developing 8 new state of the art fire stations across Merseyside.One of these will be a brand new fire station at Belle Vale, and I hope you welcome this major investment by the Fire Authority.

This will be a brand new fire station incorporating extensive community facilities that will be available for local people and allow us to ensure that our world leading community fire safety work continues to be delivered in the local area."

I had to laugh at this next bit

"I would also add that the fire engine you use in your leaflet to draw attention to the leaflet, is not a Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service appliance. If you wish to use images that illustrate the true professionalism of the Fire & Rescue Service of Merseyside then please contact us and we can supply you with images that would portray a much better quality service to the communities of Belle Vale and Allerton than portraying the very old appliance in your leaflet."

and concludes by saying

"There are no cuts whatsoever to the communities of Belle Vale and Allerton,there are no closures to the stations of Belle Vale and Allerton and there areno threats of any such closures. There will in fact be a brand new fire stationfor Belle Vale."

The Chief Fire Officer was far too polite to point out that the LibDem Leader of Liverpool City Council and the Chief Whip of the LibDem group are both fire-fighters, I would love to know what they think of this leaflet and this response. I should imagine they are very red-faced indeed.

Another shameful episode on the road to the downfall of Liverpool LibDems surely?

Thursday, November 15, 2007

An interesting workshop tonight at the wonderful Foresight Centre on London Road.

We were discussing the succession strategy for Kensington Regeneration, the partnership that has been managing the Kensington New Deal for Communities project for the last 8 years. It comes to an end in April 2010 so we need to decide whether there should be a successor organisation and what its priorities should be given that it cannot deliver the whole of the programme it currently does with no revenue.

There have been a number of workshops I understand but at ours today it was our settled view that there should be a successor organisation and the CIC which has been set up for this purpose should be supported.

We felt it should concentrate on two main areas:

Securing funding for the continuation of the award-winning Community Wardens scheme who can work on what I am loosely calling "the people's priority" - that of environmental issues, street cleansing, fly-tipping, graffiti, along with supporting vulnerable residents and acting as a link on the street between residents and service deliverers.

Economic development and local enterprise - jobs and income basically.

I was very struck by a contribution from Cllr Malcolm Kennedy at a recent Joint Neighbourhood committee where he said that despite wonderful improvements in the housing stock and the general environment in a part of his ward, in Vauxhall, the indicators on health, income, quality of life were still very poor. The massive physical improvements did not affect how much money families had to live on or make them any more healthy.

They have come there to the realisation that true regeneration has to come from an improvement in income. Which of course has to come from the provision of jobs/better paid jobs.

So we need the successor company to concentrate on getting businesses to come to Kensington and surrounds, and to provide good quality jobs for local people - who need to be skilled up in good time to fill the posts.

So that was our workshops findings, I will be interested to see what other workshops thought, and of course to your comments and views here on the blog too.

I did give a long quote but obviously, as it was nearly as long as the whole story it had to be trimmed.

What I actually said was

"My interest in the public library service has been strong ever since I learnt to read. I had special permission from the Chief Librarian to have a "senior" library ticket at the age of about 9 or 10 because I had already read all the books in the junior section in our library. Three months after I took my A levels I went to work in a library and a few years later secured the City and Guilds (London Institute) Library and Information Assistants Certificate.

As both a library worker and a library user, my experience tells me that public libraries are amongst the very best of the services that Local Government delivers to its residents.

Lister Drive Library is a wonderful example of a local library. It provides a great service within a nationally celebrated building.

It may have been closed pro tem because of Health and Safety issues but this can and should be only a temporary measure.

We need this library to be brought back into public use as soon as possible. Allowing it to fall into disrepair is a slight on both the concept of public libraries and on the importance of the concept of listing in Local Government."

Before the usual suspects jump on me for the fact this is not in my ward, I would say that it is nontheless the library of choice for many Fairfield residents.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

I was very pleased and quite proud if I am honest, to be asked to join the interview panel for the new Chair and then this week, interviews for the new Chief Executive of the new Liverpool company which will be formed from the three companies currently charged with developing and promoting Liverpool.

Liverpool Vision, Business Liverpool and Liverpool Land Development Company will be merged into one new company, name as yet unknown, but we did bounce around the suggestion that it could possibly be OneLiverpool.

In a nutshell its job is to sell Liverpool nationally and internationally to attract investment, jobs, so as to enhance regeneration and prosperity.

The interview panel consisted of Cllr Warren Bradley, Cllr Mike Storey, Colin Hilton the Cheif Exec of Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Vision Chair Sir Joe Dwyer, Bernice Law from the NWDA, currently advising the Capital of Culture company, Mike Parker, the new Chair of the new company (and Group Chief Executive of BNFL) and me.

It was meant to have been Cllr Malcolm Kennedy but he could not make it so he suggested me. It probably helped a bit that as an HR professional I interview people all the time and am very fully trained.

I wont say anything about the interviews themselves or the candidates, but it was a very interesting experience and I was given full opportunity to contribute to both the interviewing and the decision making. Sometimes cross-party working can be very difficult and uncomfortable but it was all very professional just as it should be.

I look forward to seeing how the successful candidates take the new company forward and to how Liverpool benefits from their work.

Wendy and I went to Sheil Park Residents Committee last night. My first meeting, her second. We were made extremely welcome.

We took away some issues that we can hopefully resolve but mainly we listened and learnt about the concerns of residents on this beautiful little estate built on the footprints of two tower blocks demolished a few years back.

They are rightly very proud of their estate, their lovely homes and their fabulous community centre. I look forward to getting to know them better and to working with them in the future.

An interesting Neighbourhood Committee this month with presentations about plans for the Royal Liverpool hospital and the Building Schools for the Future programme to renew our city's secondary schools.

We also passed a resolution from Labour Cllrs Jane Corbett, Frank Prendergast and John McIntosh about Soho Street Post Office, supporting residents' campaigns to keep it open. We also called on the council to work with post offices by allowing people to access some council services through them, to make them more viable.

There was a rather acrimonious discussion where the LibDems tried to scupper it by first extending the motion to cover all of Liverpool which is outside the remit of our neighbourhood and then to get us to actively condemn the Government (which is also outside the remit of our neighbourhood and obviously unlikely to receive Labour support). Then when this attempt failed they argued that we could not ask for inclusion of support of post offices in the Local Area Agreement because we had not agreed it yet. Well no, that was rather the point, we wanted it to go in at this draft stage.

Thankfully the clerk managed to sort it all out and with a bit of tweaking the resolution went forward to the next stage.

You might ask why they would not want to support this perfectly satisfactory resolution - because they didnt want Labour to get any positive publicity out of it, that is pretty much why they oppose many of the motions we ever propose at any committee about anything. It is party politics at the expense of the public.

Great reports from our three Police Inspectors about the falling crime levels in our wards, great news about the big reduction in trouble on mischief night, halloween and bonfire night, great news about some good arrests and convictions for drug dealing and burglaries etc.

I noticed the LibDems very properly congratulated the police for their sterling efforts and welcomed the reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour. It was only a shame that LibDem Cllr and Liverpool Wavertree Parliamentary Candidate Colin Eldridge wasn't there to listen to them, so that he doesn't put out any more leaflets about dreadful rising crime and poor police numbers. Hopefully one of his colleagues will let him know...

Wendy and I went to St George's Hall on Sunday for the Remembrance Day service.

Unfortunately it rained quite heavily and the big crowd of service men and women, veterans, dignatories, faith leaders and the general public who attended all got very wet.

It was a lovely service though, and good to see so many children and young people taking part.

At one point a Dakota flew over and dropped millions of poppy petals but unfortunately the wind and rain blew them away from their intended landing on the square, I was finding them on Sefton Street the next day which must be half a mile away at least.

I took Grandad Baldock's medals with me and showed them to a few people. I understand I could actually wear them if I wanted to, over the right breast rather than the left, but I think that would feel a bit strange so I kept them in my bag. He received the Africa star, the Italy star, the Atlantic Star, the Defence medal, the Long and Efficent Service medal and two other medals which seem to commemorate "taking part" for want of a better description.

He was awarded the Oak Leaf for mention in despatches at the evacuation of Dunkirk, he went to Buckingham Palace to receive it from the King and Queen. He was in the Navy, as a medical officer. I am very proud of him.

Liam and I have continued our visit to residents in the Elm Vale area.

Last week we knocked on about 30 doors, spoke at length to residents in 16 houses, took about a dozen items of casework and requests for information away. It is slow progress but we feel we are making very good links with people and really engaging with them and their issues.

This area is particularly important because they dont have a TRA to engage with so we have to go to each resident individually to find out what their local issues are.

Main concerns in the area continue to be the numbers of young people gathering together on local streets and then in the park, having bought lots of alcohol from nearby suppliers who are supplying them underage. We have taken this up with the local police who have been arranging test purchases of alcohol in the area and giving the area lots of visits. Several residents commented on the much increased presence of police on the streets.

Being a tree-lined area there are the usual concerns about pruning and leaf-fall.

Street cleansing is an issue too as it is right across the patch, everyone talks constantly about the difference in street cleansing between areas like Mossley Hill, Allerton, Childwall and areas like Picton and Kensington. I am trying to set up a meeting with Enterprise Liverpool to go over their schedule of cleansing and to work with Neighbourhood Management Services and with local residents, to monitor them to see whether they are sticking to the schedule and whether it is in any case often enough or sufficient.

I had a lovely evening in Stockton on Tees for my Mum's birthday last weekend. We all went to TGI Fridays, Mom, Roger, Maxine, Jonathan and the boys.

It was good fun and nice food. I had chicken quesadilla (or however you spell it) and a huge pudding of waffle, fruit and ice-cream, most of which went untouched, lovely though it was. I guess as they say in the North, my eyes were too big for my belly. The bill for five adults and two children, with a bottle of wine and other drinks was £120 which I thought wasn't too bad really.

Alex and Joel were very taken with the singing waiters and waitresses who serenaded the birthday guests at different tables but Mum preferred to keep a low profile so we didn't get the full treatment ourselves.

She liked her birthday presents - various sweatshirts and casual tops, which I went in about 40 shops all over the city centre to track down following the request. Apparently sweatshirts, unless they have sporting logos on the front are suddenly "pants".

We spent quite a bit of time going over the family tree research I had also done to celebrate the occasion. Sadly the outcome of the research was far from suitable for a celebration. A very sad story of a family missing from the 1851 census in a village near Sutton Coldfield. We had been searching for them for over 25 years. It transpires that the reason we could not find them was because they were ravaged by TB. The mother died, probably the father too, several of the children and then the remnants of the family were farmed out to people who could take them in. It was a real tragedy. I wasn't sure how she would take the news, even though they died 150 years ago, when you research your ancestors you do feel very close to them, even if you never met them and you dont know what they looked like. At least we know now what happened to them and can stop poring over lists of emigrants on ships.

I came away with a Christmas present wish list for the boys - computer games and music CDs are the items of choice for this year.

We examined the business plan for the next three years for this important authority who work on ensuring that nothing that might be harmful to our health gets into our country or city through either the Ports or the Airport.

They examine imports, food stuffs, live animals and so on.

They check vessels for rats and also check liners for bacterial and viral "germs" and so on.

Ron Gould raised an issue about the docks not having immigration check points and we have agreed to bring this up with the relevant authorities.

It is an authority that nobody ever mentions, I didnt even know it existed until I started sitting on it. We said we should be improving our publicity as I think people would want to know about the work that is being done. I have offered to help with that if necessary.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Just a quick entry to promote some good local work - from an email I have recieved today.

Kensington Domestic Violence Service

Domestic violence takes many forms and affects people from all walks of life and all communities. Someone you know, or even a close family member may be experiencing the distress, pain and isolation caused by domestic violence.

If you would like to know more about domestic violence, how it affects people and their families, and what you can do to help them you are invited to one of our Domestic Violence Awareness Sessions.

The sessions run for 2 hours and are held locally at HEAT in Durning Road and refreshments are provided. We are planning a programme of sessions that will run throughout November and December so there will be a date and time to suit you.

If you are interested in coming to one of our sessions – Wednesday 14th November 10 –12 am; Thursday 15th November 1 – 3 pm; Wednesday 5th December 1 – 3; Wednesday 12th December 1 – 3 pm, or would like to know more about them before you decide